The Melancholy of George Weasley
by Mindless Musings
Summary: George reflects on his brother and his life. Repost. Deathly Hallows spoilers. 1sentence Beta Set used.


Get ready for some blatant abuse and misuse of hyphens, colons, semi-colons, etc. and let's not you and I forget about those fun run-ons!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter, Something Corporate, Eclipse, 1sentence challenges, Ouran High School Host Club or a grammar book.

**Warnings and Notes:**_SEVENTH BOOK SPOILERS!_ Emo!George. I can't really get the hang of Little Devil Type characters, so he's ridiculously out of character. The lack of grammar also made it impossible for me to proofread this without cringing. Also, this story was posted at an earlier date, but I took it down after someone told me that George's_ left _ear was blasted and he married Alicia. I could find no proof of either of these points, so I claim artistic license. If anyone can give me a page number or link that proves me wrong, I would be glad to correct it. Until then, it stays as is.

**UPDATE**1/12/07 – I have been linked to an interview with J.K. Rowling where she states that George married Angelina. Many thanks to **Victoria Humblydum**. Fortunately, I rarely mention his wife (and never by name or description), mostly just random women who come into the store frequently or random dates so I didn't change anything. Yeah, I'm a cheater.

**Summary:** George thinking about Fred; no timeline, so expect random time-warps.

Written using the 1sentence challenge Beta set, but not entered in the challenge.

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**#01 - Walking**

It was a rather queer and very unwelcome feeling, having only a shadow to match strides with.

**#02 - Waltz**

Back, right, together - forward, left, together - a dance which many girls had found quite beautiful when the mirror-image steps were playfully executed around the Common Room by mirror-image boys so long ago.

**#03 - Wishes**

"Make a wish," Ron teased, nodding toward the shooting star as he turned away from his brother to lock up the store for the night; George stared down the younger man, wishing a different brother was standing in his place.

**#04 - Wonder**

George Weasley softly fingered the spot where his right ear had once been and wondered vaguely if he should have felt a sense of foreboding when he'd lost it: half of a pair disappearing forever, and leaving the other seemingly worse off without it.

**#05 - Worry**

"He's in a better place: a place where he can cause as much ruckus as he wants without getting into trouble," George was told, but that worried him the most: how bored Fred must be without the thrill of getting caught.

**#06 - Whimsy**

In a flair of passing whimsy, George seriously considered trekking through every inch of the Forbidden Forest to find a certain tiny black stone.

**#07 - Waste/Wasteland**

The twins had always had each other to lean on and stabilize one another; so when George had turned the store's storage room into a burning wasteland, it was the first time he'd experienced such a blinding rage.

**#08 - Whiskey and rum**

As the weeks turned to months, George found that his new routine consisted of managing the store and drinking a fine mixture of firewhiskey and muggle rum until he could hear Fred laughing as he offered the drunk redhead a butterbeer to push him into slumber.

**#09 - War**

Following the demise of his brother, George had his family hide his wand and any breakable or sharp objects on several occasions for, with each small battle, he was one step closer to winning the war.

**#10 - Weddings**

It was only when his two youngest siblings and their respective significant others decided on a double wedding that George realized how much he'd actually been looking forward to Fred's once-laughable idea of their own double wedding.

**#11 - Birthday**

George didn't understand how people could feel happy about their birthdays: although he was surrounded by people, it felt like the loneliest day of his life.

**#12 - Blessing**

He hadn't realized how many blessings one room could hold until his wife gazed down at the red-headed newborn and whispered, "Welcome to the world, Fred Weasley."

**#13 - Bias**

"I realize I'm rather biased," George told his wife with a smile - sad, yes, but there - once they had searched through the creatures and decided on a speckled kitten - "but I don't think they should be separated..." - which, of course, quickly convinced the woman to gather the identical mewling kitten next to its sibling.

**#14 - Burning**

George stumbled away from his mourning family with wide eyes, slumped against an intact stone wall when he was far enough away, doubled over and let the vile burning flow through his throat as if trying to expel his stomach contents, his pain, his life, his heart...

**#15 - Breathing**

It used to be George only realized he was still living by matching his breaths to Fred's.

**#16 - Breaking**

George heard people whispering about his broken-hearted manner, all the while wondering how his heart could possibly be breaking when half of it had already been ripped away from him.

**#17 - Belief**

"No, no, I'm fine, I promise," George laughed as a customer questioned his somber mood, but neither believed him.

**#18 - Balloon**

A beautiful woman - a blonde George quickly recognized as a regular at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes - approached the counter tentatively, laid an uninflated balloon in front of him and told his confused expression that she had talked a prototype party favor out of Fred and she would give it back if any little bit helped.

**#19 - Balcony**

The balcony railing began to buck when George leaned against it and he smiled: Fred had started this game of surprise tricks long ago and the remaining brother was still finding traps littered all over.

**#20 - Bane**

"Do you think, maybe, there's something like the Wolfsbane Potion that will keep me from wanting to jump the next person who 'is only trying to help' by recommending their psychiatrist?" the ex-twin only half-teased.

**#21 - Quiet**

All was silent in the Weasley home, as his wife was asleep and he was watching over Fred, desperate to protect him right this time.

**#22 - Quirks**

The Weasleys had always been a quirky family, the twins especially so, so it bothered very few when, in the middle of a business transaction or maybe dinner or possibly just walking down the street, George stopped, closed his eyes, held a hand over his remaining ear to block out the background noise, and, after a moment, smiled softly and went on his way.

**#23 - Question**

"Is it true you hear voices in your...you know-" and here George's date gestured to the right side of her head, near her ear, and George laughed and replied, "No, just the one voice."

**#24 - Quarrel**

Had the neighbors not been used to the noise coming from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, they may have found it fit to investigate the screaming coming from the building late at night and, had they investigated, they would have been faced with the predicament of restraining the freckled business owner as he tearfully argued with the mirror that "if _you_ could be worried about _me_ over an _ear_, then why can't I spend the rest of my life wishing you were still here?!"

**#25 - Quitting**

"You can't quit now, not after all your progress," insisted the therapist George had been forced to, prompting the redhead to snap back: "I'm not quitting, I'm giving up; there's a difference."

**#26 - Jump**

It was easy: all he had to do was take one more step and he could feel whole again, but a familiar voice always pressed in from the right, demanding him not to do it; he listened, he had to.

**#27 - Jester**

George smiled as he forced himself to open the photo album and was greeted by two identical smiling faces - one beaming more brightly than the other - and waving energetically, causing the bells on the tips of their jester hats to wobble and (though he couldn't hear it) jingle.

**#28 - Jousting**

He slammed the book shut again, however, at the sight of Fred laying motionless on the stone floor of Hogwarts although he recalled quite vividly how they would steal weaponry from the coats of armor and hold jousts in the halls of the school.

**#29 - Jewel**

Despite the pain in his heart, George had finally become able to give what remained of it to a wonderful woman and knew he had picked the right ring because no disembodied voice had snapped, 'Don't be dumb: the jewel's all wonky in that one.'

**#30 - Just**

"We knew life wasn't fair, we just wanted to make it more fun," George told no one as his fingers traced the engraving in the stone, taking a moment to sigh before continuing: "I guess it's true, though, because if there was any justice, we wouldn't be separated like this."

**#31 - Smirk**

The few rare times George chanced a smile, he always caught his reflection in a surface and saw Fred's cheeky face smirking back at him.

**#32 - Sorrow**

The group got as far as "We're here to help you through your sorrow" before George Apparated the hell out of there: if 'sorrow' was the best word they could come up with to describe his numbing agony and lack of sense of self, then they definitely couldn't help him.

**#33 - Stupidity**

In their youth, Fred and George had marveled over the stupidity of other people when their identities were confused - after all, it was quite obvious to the twins that the one who was not George was Fred and vice versa - but now George understood their confusion all too well.

**#34 - Serenade**

"Now, I want you to listen closely, Fred, because this is something you'll need to know," George told his infant son, no trace of humor on his face - that is, until he opened his mouth and soothingly (almost like a lullaby) began to sing a U-No-Poo jingle from not long ago.

**#35 - Sarcasm**

He didn't mean for his response of "Oh, yes, I'm just _peachy_" to have quite as much bite as it apparently did, but, damnit, he was getting sick of people asking if he was alright.

**#36 - Sordid**

The sordid details of George's attempts to reach his brother never came up in any sort of grapevine because he was as he had once been when business began to pick up again, except on rare occasions when he called for Fred's help on a gift idea and became rather dazed for a moment; of course, he never said anything and neither did the frequent customer who had fallen in love with him.

**#37 - Soliloquy**

It took longer than it should have for the Weasley family to realize that George's frequent soliloquies were actually his attempts to cling to the remaining vestiges of half of his identity.

**#38 - Sojourn**

"Sojourn here until your ear heals, and I'll-" Fred silenced himself at the glare from George, who told him, "First of all, stop asking Hermione to teach you big words unless you intend to learn how to use them; Second, I'll stay...if you admit that my saint joke was funny for being half-delusional and bleeding out from the side of my head."

**#39 - Share**

"If I die, you can have my ear," Fred had jibed, nudging his brother who, had he known the fate that would befall his twin, surely would not have scoffed jokingly and teased back, "You bet I can: it's your duty as my dear elder brother to share what you don't need."

**#40 - Solitary**

He had always known his name to be "Fred and George," but now he was a solitary figure, separate from attachments and doppelgangers, and he wasn't sure if he could handle that.

**#41 - Nowhere**

When they were children, Fred and George would let the other stay with them in bed if one had a bad dream; as they grew, they always made sure they were near each other in sleeping arrangements, just in case; now, George had nowhere to go when his subconscious mind replayed the empty eyes staring up at him from his own face.

**#42 - Neutral**

"Let's be Switzerland," George had suggested, having already lost an ear and - thought he had been in a state of denial regarding the possibility of it being Fred - was unwilling to risk anything else; he knew they would be in the final battle no matter what.

**#43 - Nuance**

There are nuances of meaning to the word "numb" and George experienced all of them the moment he saw Fred's empty eyes.

**#44 - Near**

Sometimes, when he was feeling especially alone, George would close his eyes and try to feel his twin near him, because it had never failed him before.

**#45 - Natural**

It was only natural to feel disembodied when George saw his twin laying lifeless on the ground, as it must have seemed to be his own body in its place - the fact of the matter was, he wasn't entirely sure it hadn't been him: how could the world exist without Fred?

**#46 - Horizon**

"You live the life you're given with the storms outside," Harry told George and George listened because the younger man knew what to say, so he asked how the so called Chosen-One was able to fulfill his expected role, to which the boy responded, the sunset on the horizon reflected in his eyes, "Some days all I do is watch the sky."

**#47 - Valiant**

Someone near him at the bar brought up the war, and George's first thought was how excitedly Fred had suggested riding valiantly back to Hogwarts on their now-legendary broomsticks because, if he was going down, damned if he wasn't doing it in style.

**#48 - Virtuous**

"-as we lay to rest Frederick Weasley, a most virtuous young man-" and here George had to fight to urge to smile for several reasons: most important being the 'virtuous' comment and, honestly, did anyone know him as "Frederick"?

**#49 - Victory**

The store prospered, the singular twin showed up for family functions, he dated, he laughed, he joked, and, most importantly, he'd won the battle against his loneliness, but he never quite met his own eyes in the mirror.

**#50 - Defeat**

"It's alright: you can cry," the Boy-Who-Lived whispered softly on the earless side of the prankster as the two passed without a back-glance; George stumbled into the nearest closet and wept

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**Notes:**

#18: I have no idea. The original premise for it was a magically-enhanced balloon Fred gave George to reflect how George was really feeling if he insisted he was fine while his ear healed (slumping to the ground if he felt like dying, floating as high as it could if he was well enough to do a little dance and sneak Canary Creams into dinner.) It was supposed to be lying flat on the floor.

#24: This will sound pretentious, but I really like this one. I almost cry. Original premise was something like The Twins Fight from OHSHC.

#42: I love you, SteMe, so I'm sorry for stealing your Switzerland thing. This is probably my least-favorite one. Hate!

#46: I was really tempted to put "I finally lost my mind and then I lost my way" and "When you can't bear to carry me I'll fight" somewhere else, because I reeeeeaaaally like those lines. Song is "Watch the Sky" by Something Corporate

In case you couldn't tell, I'm really fond of the idea that Fred found George's ear when he passed on and is relaying secret messages to him or something.


End file.
